Both the RIVERSIDE or SWEET-SCENTED GRAPE (V.vulpina; formerly V.cordifolia, var.riparia) - whose bluish-black, bloom-covered fruit begins to ripen in July; and the FROST, CHICKEN, POSSUM, or WINTER GRAPE (V.cordifolia), whose smaller, shining black berries are not at their best till after frost, grow along streams and preferably in rocky situations.The shining, light green, thin leaves of the sweet-scented species are sharply lobed, the three to seven lobes have acute teeth, and the tendrils are intermittent.The frost grape's leaves, which are commonly three or four inches wide, are deeply heart-shaped, entire (rarely slightly three-lobed), tapering to a long point and acutely toothed.
Another familiar member of the Grape family, the VIRGINIACREEPER, FALSE GRAPE, AMERICAN or FIVE-LEAVED IVY, also erroneously called WOODBINE (Parthenocissus quinquefolia;formerly Ampelopsis quinquefolia) - is far more charming in its glorious autumnal foliage, when its small dark blue berries hang from red peduncles, than when its insignificant greenish flower clusters appear in July.The leaves, compounded of five leaflets, should sufficiently distinguish the harmless vine from the three-leaved poison ivy, sometimes confounded with it.From Manitoba and Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, and even in Cuba, the Virginia creeper rambles over thickets, fences, and walls, ascends trees, festoons rocky woodlands, drapes our verandas, making its way with the help of modified flower stalks that are now branching tendrils, each branch bearing an adhesive disk at the end."In the course of about two days after a tendril has arranged its branches so as to press upon any surface," says Darwin, "its curved tips swell, become bright red, and form on their undersides little disks or cushions with which they adhere firmly." It is supposed that these disks secrete a cement.At any rate, we know that they have a very tenacious hold, because often one contracting tendril, as elastic as a steel spring, supports, by means of these little disks, the entire weight of the branch it lifts up.Darwin concluded that a tendril with five disk-bearing branches, on which he experimented, would stand a strain of ten pounds, even after ten years' exposure to high winds and softening rains.
WHITE VIOLETS
(Viola) Violet family Three small-flowered, white, purple-veined, and almost beardless species which prefer to dwell in moist meadows, damp, mossy places, and along the borders of streams, are the LANCE-LEAVEDVIOLET (V.lanceolata), the PRIMROSE-LEAVED VIOLET (V.
prirnulaefolia), and the SWEET WHITE VIOLET (V.blanda), whose leaves show successive gradations from the narrow, tapering, smooth, long-petioled blades of the first to the oval form of the second and the almost circular, cordate leaf of the delicately fragrant, little white blanda, the dearest violet of all.
Inasmuch as these are short-spurred species, requiring no effort for bees to drain their nectaries, no footholds in the form of beards on the side petals are provided for them.The purple veinings show the stupidest visitor the path to the sweets.
The sprightly CANADA VIOLET (V.Canadensis), widely distributed in woodlands, chiefly in hilly and mountainous regions, rears tall, leafy stems terminated by faintly fragrant white or pale lavender blossoms, purple-tinged without and purple veined, the side petals bearded, the long sepals tapering to sharp points.
Here we see a violet in the process of changing from the white ancestral type to the purple color which Sir John Lubbock, among other scientists, considers the highest step in chromatic evolution.This species has heart-shaped, saw-edged leaves which taper acutely.From May even to July is its regular blooming season; but the delightful family eccentricity of flowering again in autumn appears to be a confirmed habit with the Canada violet.
ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE
(Circaea Lutetiana) Evening Primrose family Flowers - Very small, white, slender pedicelled, in terminal and lateral racemes.Calyx 2-parted, hairy 2 petals, 2 alternate stamens.Stem: 1 to 2 ft.high, slender, branching, swollen at nodes.Leaves: Opposite, tapering to a point, distantly toothed, 2 to 4 in.long, slender petioled.Fruit: Pear-shaped, 2-celled, densely covered with stiff, hooked hairs.
Preferred Habitat - Woods; shady roadsides.
Flowering Season - June-August.
Distribution - Nova Scotia to Georgia, westward to Nebraska.
Europe and Asia.
Why Circe, the enchantress, skilled in the use of poisonous herbs, should have had her name applied to this innocent and insignificant looking little plant is not now obvious; neither is the title of nightshade any more appropriate.
Each tiny flower having a hairy calyx, that acts as a stockade against ants and other such crawling pilferers, we suspect there are abundant sweets secreted in the fleshy ring at the base of the styles for the benefit of the numerous flies seen hovering about.Among other visitors, watch the common housefly alighting on the knobby stigma, a most convenient landing place, where he leaves some pollen carried on his underside from other nightshade blossoms.In clasping the bases of the two pliable stamens, his only available supports as he sucks, he will surely get well dusted again, that he may fertilize the next blossom he flies to for refreshment.The nightshade's little pear-shaped seed vessels, armed with hooked bristles by which they steal a ride on any passing petticoat or trouser leg, reveal at a glance how this plant has contrived to travel around the globe.
